


Gentle Tides

by ThatDamnKennedyKid



Series: Gentle Waters [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Chapter 700 Rewrite, Children, F/M, Married Couple, fem!naruto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-11
Updated: 2015-05-11
Packaged: 2018-03-26 15:27:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3855697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatDamnKennedyKid/pseuds/ThatDamnKennedyKid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naruto comes home from the Kage conference to the love of her beauty marked family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gentle Tides

Naruto stood outside the door to her small house. It was still hard to believe, after all these years, that there was light peeking out from under the door. There were people waiting for her inside. People who loved her, wanted her, needed her. 

Like she did each night, she got giddy inside. She grasped the handle and opened the door.

* * *

Kakashi watched from a distance as Naruto's shoulders dropped the slightest bit, her hands finding their way into her pockets as she turned and left. Sakura was gushing over Sasuke once more and had, again, pushed Naruto out of the way. It was oddly reminiscent of their childhood. Sasuke growled, trying to escape Sakura's clutches to talk to his kindred spirit, something only she had been sure of. It hurt him to see them divided like this, separated once more by selfishness.

"You shouldn't pine, you know."

Kakashi looked over his shoulder at Shikamaru, who stood with a cocked hip and a lit cigarette, his first since the war's end.

"What do you mean?"

"Naruto. You shouldn't pine after her. Just tell her."

Kakashi snorted. "She'd not even of consenting age."

"She just won us a war."

"So did I when I was ten."

A small smirk came to the Nara's lips, but he ducked his head in acquiescence. "That's fair, but was your war against a god?"

"Mine was against a nation."

"You better move quickly, is my suggestion." Something dark, predatory, flashed in his eyes. "She does have a preference for dark haired, pale men."

* * *

She had wanted to punch the person that pulled her off the couch to answer the door, but how could she when it was Kakashi standing there with take out ramen?

"Kakashi-sensei?"

She thought she saw him twitch uneasily, but he smiled fluidly enough. "I thought it might be nice to have something that's not soldier pills for dinner, being our first night back in Konoha and everything."

She brightened and stepped aside. "I don't have a tv or anything to watch . . . "

"Me neither, so don't worry about it."

She rubbed the back of her head. "Heh heh, sorry. I don't realize how small this place really is, sometimes. Or how dirty, for that matter."

He chuckled lowly and she brightened. 

"Have you even been home yet, sensei?"

He paused, thoughtful. "Now that you mention it, no."

She took the bags from him. "Go shower. I've got some old clothes you gave me that should still fit you . . . And then we can pretend you didn't come here to see this mess."

He chuckled again and shook his head. "I'll run my clothes through the wash while I shower. I'll also make sure not to mention the mess to anyone."

She bumped her hip against his, grinning like mad. "I owe ya, sensei!"

* * *

He stood at the bottom of the staircase. 

Tsunade and all of the elders were waiting at the top, the village gathered en masse below in the streets. He trembled, hand resting loosely on the handle. 

 _Deep breaths, Hatake._ He scolded.  _You weren't like this when you fought Pain._

A gentle hand laid over his. His gaze snapped up to the simmering cerulean of his former student. 

"If you can't do it alone, we can do it together." She said softly, her voice serious, but her face open, if unsmiling. Her voice softened, though she still looked vaguely concerned. "The question is if you want to."

Mutely, he shook his head. "I don't want it."

"Even though you'll be the best Hokage that this village will ever see?"

His free hand fell over the one she had covering his. "It hasn't gotten a taste of you yet."

She smiled, if a little ruefully. "Then make sure to take good care of it until I can take it from you."

"I promise."

Her fingers closed more firmly over his and his other hand fell away. She turned the handle, the door sliding open easily under their hands. 

* * *

He was suddenly pulled into a closet, the door quickly but quietly closing behind him. He had the chance to cock an eyebrow before Naruto was on him, giggling. 

"Man, I don't know how I'm going to top that speech. You were great!"

"Heh, you think?"

"They didn't cheer that much for baa-chan, now did they? The only time I've ever seen them this happy was once I defeated Pain."

"I've only got one question for you, Naruto."

She cocked her head. "What's that?"

"Why are we in a closet?"

She smiled brightly. "The festivities are going to start soon and everyone in the village will want to talk to you. I needed to be the first one. So," She grabbed him around the waist and hugged tightly, her face pressed into his breast. "congratulations, Kakashi."

Slowly, his arms wound around her. "Thank you, Naruto."

* * *

"Where were you?"

She grinned at him. "In Suna. I wanted to see Gaara again, make sure all the people from Suna are okay."

He smiled. "So your vacation was nice? How's your arm doing?"

She looked down at the bandaged appendage. "S'okay, I suppose. Nothing wrong with it."

"Then what's on your mind?"

"It . . . kinda looks like the getup Neji had when we were Genin."

He sat forwards, realizing the issue. Silently, he beckoned her over and silently, she came. He took the hand in question and kissed the top of it. "Don't feel bad for something you had no control over. He did it to save you, which means he loved you, in his own way."

Slowly, she nodded, her breaths deep and measured the way they had been before she'd turned to fight Sasuke for the last time. "Thank you, Kakashi-sensei."

"Will I ever be anything other than Kakashi-sensei to you?" He realized how two-fold the question sounded only after he'd said it. He hoped Tenzou wasn't around to hear that. as his secretary, he took it upon himself to shut down anything he deemed perverted from Kakashi. 

She chuckled. "If you're trying to get me to call you Kakashi-sama, then you've completely lost it."

He snorted. "Why would I try to do that? You called Lady Tsunade 'granny' her whole term in office."

"You'll always be my sensei, no matter where life takes us." She smiled brightly. "Or where we end up."

* * *

"Naruto? What happened?"

She smiled uneasily through the soot on her face. "Sai was cooking. Erhm, perhaps the better word is  _tried_."

"He lit your kitchen on fire?"

"My whole apartment."

"Why was he cooking at your place?"

"He lives out of the barracks and I have-  _had_ a brand new kitchen courtesy of the landlord. So, uh, I need to ask you a favour."

"Yeah, sure."

"Can I stay with you until my place is fixed?"

He shook his head, arms crossed over his chest. "What am I going to do with you? Yeah, you can stay. How much of your place burnt?"

"Um, all of it?"

"Did you manage to save any clothes?"

"Only a few pieces, mostly nightclothes. I'll go shopping today and get a few outfits, don't worry. At least enough for a load."

He shook his head again, this time more fondly. "Go. Get yourself cleaned up before you go scaring the shopkeepers."

* * *

Kakashi kept a nice, tidy and modest apartment. It was enough for a couple to live in, as he once had with his father. However, when he got home that night, signs of Naruto were already very much present. For instance, the smell of cooking food. Tenzou was out on a mission this week and for Iruka, it was test week. Gai couldn't cook to save his life.

"When did you take up cooking?"

Naruto smiled at him over her shoulder, her hair grown out to a more shaggy length, a lot like her father. "After the war. I needed something to do with myself to not dwell. I can cook quite a bit. I had Sasuke, Sakura and Sai over for a bit last week for dinner."

"Do you think that's why Sai wanted to take up cooking?"

"Actually, I had Sai over quite a bit. He was the unfortunate soul who had to do all the taste testing. I think he wanted to give it a shot because he knows that even a hopeless cook can at least become competent."

"So what's for dinner, then?"

"Pasta shells in yogurt and mint sauce."

"That sounds different. Where's it from?"

"Suna. I think Kankurou gave me the recipe." She paused, thoughtful. "Or maybe it was Temari. Ah, well, they eat a lot of yogurt over there. I'm not surprised it made it into pasta form too."

"I wasn't expecting mint."

"They've got all the herbs going on over there. Their greenhouses are amazing."

"I see."

* * *

They passed the night in friendly, easy banter. It was nice to see her like this, to know her as an adult. The long years after what she affectionately called the "Butthurt War" were showing on her skin, on her form. For the first while, she stood fast in her masculine clothing finding some sort of comfort in looking like a boy. Slowly, though, he'd seen her grow. She let her hair grow, the locks lengthening and gently brushing her shoulders before enveloping them, becoming tendrils over spikes. She started just wearing shirts instead of her jacket. More and more mesh clothing made it into her wardrobe. She lost the baggy pants, too. She now wore more form-fitting leggings, tucked into her boots and wrapped in ninja tape. 

She was beautifully simple and it was becoming harder and harder for him to keep his mouth shut.

* * *

It took almost a year before she could move back into her apartment. By that time, she was so thoroughly entrenched in Kakashi's apartment, she paid off her owed rent and let the landlord rent it out to someone else without ever once telling Kakashi.

It occurred to him some six months after the refurbishment of her apartment to ask her about it's status. She looked at him oddly.

"It's been completed for almost seven months, Kakashi."

Oh, but he loved that, when she just called him by name. He wanted to hear her call out to him, but he wouldn't let his baser instincts prevail. She deserved someone her own age to settle down with, to love. 

"Oh. Why didn't you move back?"

She shrugged uncomfortably. "Do you want me to go?"

"No." Damnit, it slipped out before he could stop himself. 

Again, she was looking at him oddly, but not as skittishly as she had been moments ago. 

"You want me to stay?"

"I-" How did he say this without telling her what he really wanted to say? He couldn't very well tell her that he held her tightly every night because he wanted to, not because there was only one bed and he moved in his sleep. They both knew he was lying when he'd said that, having been on enough missions together to know each other's sleeping habits. "I want you to be happy."

"Even if that means you have to stop bullshitting me?"

He froze. "Pardon?"

"Friends do a lot for friends, Kakashi, but they don't let them live with them for a year and a half without payment. They don't hold each other like we do at night. A normal friend would have bought an air mattress and told them to use the guest bedroom. Hell, even the futon in your living room that we never use for sitting."

He was still as a stone as she moved closer. 

"And, as a quirk of mine, you should have noticed that I dropped the '-sensei' a year ago."

Had it been that long? It didn't feel like it. It felt like she'd been here for just a couple of months.

"Tell me if I'm wrong," She said, almost chest to chest with him. "and I'll leave it be. Look me in the eyes and tell me I'm wrong. I'm dense, but I'm far from stupid, 'ttebayo."

* * *

"Mum!"

She dropped and caught the little thing that jumped into her arms. "Hey, Shinrai! How've you been, baby?"

Luminescent sapphires beamed at her, her face just a little rounder than her father's and a beauty mark gracing the area just underneath her left eye, a matching one on the left side of her nose. "I got accepted into the Academy today!"

She didn't recall seeing the papers. "Oh, really?"

"Got the letter this morning." Shinrai's father was leaning against the door frame of the living room. "Shikamaru will probably have it for you tomorrow to sign off on."

"Dad showed me the Chidori, too! I can do all the hand signs, and fast too!"

"Oh, really? I thought you said you wanted to learn the Rasengan first?"

"I do! But I'm Lightning affinity, not Wind."

"The Rasengan is just a ball of chakra. I add my affinity the same way you can. It's not specific to chakra nature, like the Chidori."

"Oh. Cool! Can you show me after dinner?"

"Sure. Hey, why don't we go out for dinner?"

"Yeah!"

He groaned. "My poor wallet. You two celebrate everything."

"Oh, come on. She's seven and in the Academy? She takes after you and I think that's reason enough to celebrate." She stood with her daughter in her arms and kissed his cheek. "You just don't want to change out of your robes."

"I retired for a reason, Lady Hokage."

She giggled. "C'mon. Get dressed properly and  _I'll_ treat us to dinner."

* * *

The moonlight reflected off of their daughter's silver hair and warm skin. 

"She's so beautiful."

His fingers wound through one waist-length lock. "Just like her mother."

She pulled his other hand out from under the mesh netting of her undershirt and vicariously from under her banded midriff shirt. She could almost hear him pout, but she didn't comment on it. "You don't need to flatter me so much. We're already married."

"Yeah, well, I still get death threats from Iruka. You have no idea the things he said to me when he found out you were pregnant."

"Hmm. I bet." She laughed lowly, pulling his wandering hand out of her orange shorts as well. "Maybe it's because you can't keep your hands off me."

"It's not my fault that i get to have you all to myself at night. Can one really blame me when you're here, all pressed up against me?"

"Maybe not, but that doesn't mean you have to act on it."

"Are you sure?"

She laughed again.

Silence reigned between them for a moment. Her midriff t-shirt clung to her tightly, the black material criss-crossing her breasts nicely, a thick orange band, matching the hems along the outside edges of her shirt, at the bottom keeping it pressed against her form. Mesh peeked out from under the band, coming out just enough to rest halfway down her stomach. Her shorts were completely orange, clinging low on her hips and high on her thighs. Her boots still only covered her ankles, but she had ninja tape that reached halfway up her shin where it met more mesh. That mesh trailed up her leg, just over her knee, where it was held down with simple, elegant orange straps. 

"Thank you."

She peered at him over her shoulder. "For what?"

"For being my lover. For giving me a family. For loving me."

She turned in his arms, pulling down the mask and kissing the small mole on the left side of his mouth. "I wouldn't trade this for anything."

"Even though I'm old?"

"How about I prove to you exactly how little your  _age_ factors into my love, eh,  _Kakashi_?"

**Author's Note:**

> "Shinrai" is Japanese for "Trust".


End file.
